JP2001094498A - Wireless communication apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To update data in a nonvolatile memory built in a wireless communication apparatus with a simple method. SOLUTION: A data transfer program to be updated that is stored in the nonvolatile memory words on a RAM and data transmitted from a wireless communication means are used for update data to apply erasure, update processing to the nonvolatile memory.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wireless communication device having a rewritable nonvolatile memory, and to a method for updating the contents of the memory.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, non-volatile memories such as flash memories and EEPROMs are usually provided as means for storing and holding data of wireless communication devices, especially mobile phones. Not only mobile phones but also a wide variety of devices having a wireless communication function, and as miniaturization progresses, a simpler method for rewriting data and a method with fewer attached circuits are required.

A rewriting method for a rewritable non-volatile memory such as a flash memory and an EEPROM is required not only for wireless communication equipment, but actually various proposals have been made.
Describes a method of updating data in a flash memory while the flash memory is attached to a printed circuit board.

[0004]

However, in the conventional electronic device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-305395, an external device such as a personal computer and an RS232C or the like are used in order to rewrite data while the nonvolatile memory is mounted on a printed circuit board. There is a problem that it is necessary to go through an interface circuit such as a parallel port or the like, and a connecting means for that must be provided.

Further, in the portable terminal device having a conventional program memory disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-193860, it is necessary to prepare a memory means on which a rewrite program for changing a program is mounted or hardware for replacing the memory means. Had problems.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a communication device with improved program updateability.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a rewriting method in which a nonvolatile memory for rewriting a program is not separately prepared from a program memory.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a wireless communication apparatus having an antenna unit, a wireless signal receiving unit, a key input unit, a display unit, and a reset unit, and accessing a data rewritable nonvolatile memory. , CP to update
U, a first area for storing a boot program as an initial start program and a program loader as a data transfer program in the nonvolatile memory, and a first area indicating a jump destination address for interrupt processing. A second area for storing one interrupt table,
R is a volatile memory having a third area for storing a sequentially rewritable application program and a fourth area for storing a second interrupt table for performing interrupt processing when executing the application program.
Control means for rewriting the application program in the third area and the second interrupt table in the fourth area by transferring and executing a program loader in the first area to an AM; And erasing and updating the rewritable nonvolatile memory by using the application program and the data of the second interrupt table superimposed on a signal output from the wireless signal generator including predetermined data via the wireless signal receiving means. It is characterized by having a function to perform.

According to the above configuration, it is not necessary to physically exchange a nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory or to remove the nonvolatile memory from a printed circuit board when updating the application program, and it is also necessary to provide a personal computer for exchanging data. Since there is no need to provide an interface unit with an external device such as the above, there is an effect that the program can be updated easily and without adding a peripheral circuit function.

The wireless communication device according to claim 2, wherein the program further comprises a function of deleting and updating the third area for storing the application program and the fourth area for storing the second interrupt table. By operating a loader in the RAM area, the first area for storing the boot program and the program loader and the second area for storing a first interrupt table indicating a jump destination address for the interrupt processing are also provided. It has a function of erasing and updating simultaneously with the third area and the fourth area or individually only in the first area and the second area.

According to the above configuration, the boot program, the program loader, and the second interrupt table can be updated, so that an effect that occurs in the update program itself can be easily eliminated.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a main part of an embodiment of a wireless communication device according to the present invention. The configuration will be described. An antenna 1 serving as an antenna means, a receiving circuit 2 serving as a wireless signal receiving means, a key input circuit 3 serving as a key input means, a display panel 4 serving as a display means, a reset circuit 6 serving as a reset means, and a CPU 7 And a flash memory 9 as a rewritable nonvolatile memory and a RAM 8 as a volatile memory.

FIG. 2 is a memory map of the CPU 7. Total memory space 10 is 64 from 0000H to FFFFH
A K-byte memory space will be described as an example. In recent years, the size of a flash memory and the like has increased, and a device of a megabyte unit is not uncommon. As one of the embodiments, 2 of 0000H to 07FFH
K bytes were allocated from RAM 11,0800H to FFFFH as flash memory 12. Where RAM
The area 13 from 0500H to 07FFH in 11 is allocated as an area where the program stored in the flash memory 16 is copied.

As the allocation in the flash memory, the area from 0800H to BFE1H is allocated as the area 14 for storing the application program. BFE2
H to BFFFH, an interrupt table 2 for performing interrupt processing when executing the application program
Is assigned as the area 15. FF from C000H
The EBH is allocated as a boot program as an initial startup program and a program loader area 16 as a data transfer program. FFECH to FFFF
H is assigned as an area 17 an interrupt table 1 indicating a jump destination address for interrupt processing.

A flash memory always has an erase / write function for each block. Where region 1
Nos. 4, 15, 16, and 17 can be assigned to blocks to be erased collectively when erasing the flash memory, and the application program, interrupt table 2, boot program, program loader, and interrupt table 1 can all be updated. Also, by allocating the areas 14 and 15 and the areas 16 and 17 to different blocks, only the application and the interrupt table 2 can be erased or updated, or a boot program, a program loader,
Only the interrupt table 1 can be erased and updated. This detailed procedure will be described later with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

Instead of using a flash memory as a rewritable nonvolatile memory, an EEPROM or an SRAM backed up by a battery or the like can be used. In this case, since the erasing method for each block is not usually employed, the areas 14, 15, 16, and 17 can be arbitrarily and individually rewritten. The procedure for this is the same as the procedure described below with reference to FIG. Are identical.

The procedure for rewriting the flash memory will be described below with reference to FIGS. At 28, a program start is displayed on the display panel 4 of FIG. 29
Is input from the key input means 3 of FIG. If the application program has already been stored in the flash memory 9 and the area 14 in FIG.
By selecting "ES", the already updated application can be executed. If it is not stored yet, or if it is desired to delete or update, select "NO" and proceed to the next processing. The signal is transmitted using the transmitted wireless signal, and is processed by the CPU 7 via the antenna 1, the receiving circuit 2, and the serial communication 5. If the rewrite command is received, at 31 in FIG. Figure 2 shows the loaded program loader
Is copied to the RAM in the area 13 of FIG. At 32, the process is shifted to the copied program loader. Specifically, the interrupt is disabled and the processing is shifted by a jump instruction. This embodiment does not consider shifting processing to the program loader and performing other processing in parallel while downloading the application program using the wireless communication signal. However, the interruption table described with reference to FIG. By adopting such a method, multitask processing can be realized if necessary. Three
After shifting the processing to the program loader in 2, the application program is received in 33. At 34, the application and the interrupt table 2 in the areas 14 and 15 in FIG. Since the processing has already been shifted to the area 13 of the RAM 11, the areas 16 and 17 of the flash memory 12 can be erased at the same time. The frequency of rewriting the boot program, the program loader, and the interrupt table 1 is usually less than that of the application program, but the development and market support can be easily changed during program development or after commercialization. Be more efficient.
At 35, the received application program is copied to the area 14. After the reception of all data is changed, the erasing and updating of the application in this embodiment are completed, and the reset circuit 6 shown in FIG. Here, an external signal may be input in order to use the reset circuit 6. However, as in the case of the rewrite command described in the present embodiment, a reset command is transmitted by a predetermined wireless signal generator so that any external device can be used. A series of operations can be completed without a physical connection with the server.

In FIG. 5, the explanation of the serial communication means 5 in FIG. 1 will be added. The radio signal received by the antenna 1 constituting FIG. 1 is decoded by the receiving circuit 2 and sent to the CPU 7. The communication method of the receiving circuit 2 and the CPU 7 is generally roughly classified into serial communication and parallel communication. In this embodiment, a communication method of serial communication will be introduced. FIG. 5 shows the main part. 47 is an SIN indicating data transmitted from the receiving circuit 2 to the CPU 7, 48 is an SOUT indicating data transmitted from the CPU 7 to the receiving circuit 2, and 49 is an SCLK serving as a reference clock used for serial communication. Data is transmitted from the receiving circuit 2 to the CPU 7 by the SIN 47 in synchronization with the SCLK 49 having the CPU 7 as a signal source. At this time
OUT 48 is at the ground level. Conversely, when a control signal or the like is sent from the CPU 7 to the receiving circuit 2, it is transmitted using SOUT48.

The radio signal received by the antenna 1 is decoded by the receiving circuit 2, processed by the CPU 7, and stored in the flash memory 9. When updating the application 14 of the flash memory, this procedure is repeated until all the application data is received.

Referring to FIG. 3, description will be given of the 17 interrupt tables 1 and 15 shown in FIG. 18 is a part of the contents of the interrupt table 1. 2
Reference numeral 3 similarly indicates a part of the contents of the interrupt table 2. In the present embodiment, the key interrupt 21 will be described as an example. C
When an interrupt from the key input means 3 occurs in the PU 7, the processing is shifted to the jump destination address stored in the key interrupt of 21 in the interrupt table 1. In the present invention, since the application 14 can be appropriately updated, the interrupt processing program itself generated by the key interrupt is also updated, and the stored address itself is not uniquely determined. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a unique interrupt table 2 for each application program. In the present embodiment, the area 2 when a key interrupt occurs
The jump destination address of 1 is set so as to always point to 26 areas of 23 interrupt tables 2. A jump instruction to the key processing program actually used in each application is stored in the memory 26. Each time the application is updated, the address 26 in FIG. 2 is updated at the same time, so that the application is executed without any problem even if the application is updated and the contents of the interrupt processing routine or the assigned address are changed.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a command used in the wireless communication of this embodiment. 38 is an application rewriting start command, and 39 is a reset command. 2 each
It consisted of bytes. 40 shows a data update data format of the application. The data communication used a data amount of n + 1 byte format. These commands are rejected during the operation of the application and are not recognized as valid commands. Only valid when waiting for an application rewrite start command. This is to prevent the program stored in the flash memory from being erroneously written or erased when the command is transmitted for some reason during the execution of the application.
Furthermore, since the device is a wireless communication device, it is necessary to separately consider data loss during communication, disconnection of communication, and the like. For this purpose, it is necessary to prepare a retransmission request, reception completion, hold command, and the like. Further, the need to add redundant data for data security processing, such as error correction and checksum, also needs to be considered depending on communication conditions. The example shown in this embodiment is a means for updating an application or a rewriting program unit of one wireless communication device using a wireless signal generator for generating a predetermined command. It is also easy to update the device data at the same time.

FIG. 7 illustrates a command transmission procedure by the wireless communication means of this embodiment. The command transmitted here is the application rewrite start command or reset command, application data, or the like. At 50, wireless communication is started. Command transmission and reception are based on packet communication. At 51, the wireless signal receiving circuit determines whether or not there is a packet.
If a packet cannot be detected, the receiving circuit goes into a standby state until the next packet is detected. Here, when a packet is detected, 52 packet decoding processing is performed. A decoding circuit included in the receiving circuit performs a predetermined decoding process to decode the received packet.
Each packet includes redundant bits for error correction, and performs data error correction processing at 53. Then at 54 CR
By performing a C check, it is confirmed whether this packet is valid. At 56, if it is determined that this packet is not valid, a retransmission request of 55 is made to the external wireless signal transmission device. In order to perform this two-way communication, it is necessary to have a wireless signal transmission function. This transmission function is not required when there is a sufficiently reliable radio wave environment.
Therefore, the retransmission request processing can be omitted. At 57, the above reception procedure is repeated until all the packets have been received. When all packets have been received, 58
And confirms whether the transmitted command is valid. If it is determined in 59 that the command is not a valid command, a retransmission request of 55 is made. If the command is a valid command, 60 command processing is started. Through the processes up to 61, the command is received by the wireless communication unit of this embodiment. By using the received command, the non-volatile memory of the present invention can be erased, an update procedure can be started, and application data for updating can be transmitted by the same means.

[0024]

As described above, according to the wireless communication device of the present invention, a method for changing the application and the rewriting program stored in the nonvolatile memory is proposed, and the data can be easily transferred by wireless communication. The contents of the nonvolatile memory can be erased and updated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a memory map of a CPU in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an interrupt table in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for updating a flash memory according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a communication example of a wireless signal receiving unit and a CPU according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a communication command between the wireless signal receiving means and the CPU according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a wireless signal receiving procedure according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1. Antenna 2. 2. Receiving circuit Key input circuit 4. Display panel 5. 5. Serial communication port Reset circuit 7. CPU8. RAM 9. Flash memory 10. Memory map 11. RAM area 12. Flash memory area 13. Program loader area 14. Application area 15. Interrupt table 2 16. Boot program and program loader storage area 17. Interrupt table 1 18 Part of the contents of the interrupt table 119. External interrupt jump destination address 20. Timer interrupt destination address 21. Key interrupt destination address 22. 23. NMI interrupt jump destination address Part of the contents of the interrupt table 2 24. Jump instruction to external interrupt processing routine 25. Jump instruction to timer interrupt processing routine 26. Jump instruction to key interrupt processing routine 27. 28. Jump instruction to NMI interrupt processing routine Processing start 29. Start key input determination 30. Rewrite command reception determination 31. Copy process to RAM of program loader 32. Shift processing to program loader 33. Application data reception determination 34. Flash memory erasing processing 35. 36. Copy processing of application and interrupt table 2 Processing to start application program 37. End of flash memory data erase / update processing 38. Application rewrite command 39. Reset command 40. Application data communication format 47. Data input signal for serial communication 48. Data output signal of serial communication 49. Communication clock signal for serial communication 50. Radio signal reception start 51. Judgment of reception of packet 52. Packet decoding processing 53. Error correction processing 54. CRC check 55. Command retransmission request 56. Determining Whether Received Packet is Valid 57. Judgment of termination of reception of all packets 58. Command configuration processing 59. Determination of valid command Command processing start 61. End of wireless signal reception

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A wireless communication device comprising: an antenna unit, a wireless signal receiving unit, a key input unit, a display unit, and a reset unit, and a CPU that accesses and updates a data rewritable nonvolatile memory. A first area for storing a boot program as an initial start program and a program loader as a data transfer program in a nonvolatile memory, and a second interrupt table for storing a jump destination address for interrupt processing. An area, a third area for storing a sequentially rewritable application program, a fourth area for storing a second interrupt table for performing interrupt processing when the application program is executed
By transferring and executing the program loader of the first area to the RAM which is a volatile memory, the application program of the third area and the second interrupt table of the fourth area are transferred. Rewriting control means, the application program and data of a second interrupt table superimposed on a signal output from a wireless signal generator including predetermined data via the antenna means and the wireless signal receiving means, A wireless communication device having a function of erasing and updating a rewritable nonvolatile memory. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the program loader operates in the RAM area in addition to a function of erasing and updating the third area and the fourth area.
Area and the second area are also erased simultaneously with the third area and the fourth area or individually only in the first area and the second area.
The wireless communication device according to claim 1, further comprising a function of updating.